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Action Management

Action Directory

Drafts ships with a large number of output actions, but can be extended by create custom actions that allow you to forward drafts to other apps, create and append files in Dropbox, notes in Evernote – email pre-configured recipients, etc. To learn more about creating your own custom actions, visit documentation on Email Actions, Message Actions, Dropbox Actions, Evernote Actions or URL Actions.

We also maintain an Action Directory with many pre-configured ready-to-install actions. Just browse the Action Directory to find actions for many common apps, and tap the “Install” links on a device with Drafts installed to import the action into your copy.

Managing Actions

Action Backup and Restore

Once you have spent time customizing Drafts, adding custom actions and organizing them – it’s a good idea to backup your actions. To utilize backup and restore features, you must have linked to a Dropbox account. Dropbox is a file sync and storage service, and if you do not already have a Dropbox account, you can sign up for free.

To create a backup, go to Settings > Action Backup and Restore, and tap the “Backup Actions” button. That’s it. You can backup as often as you like, and backups are stored in your Dropbox folder at /Apps/Drafts/Settings. Backups are compatible across both the iPhone and iPad versions of Drafts.

Backups contain all custom action definitions (URL, Email, Message, Dropbox & Evernote), as well as the information about the sort order, pane assigments, “after success” and other action specific settings.

As of Drafts 3.6, you can also enable Auto-Backups on this screen. When enabled, Drafts will backup action settings automatically every few days.

To restore actions from a backup, go to Settings > Action Backup and Restore, and tap “Select Backup to Restore”. You will be presented with a list of backups available in your Dropbox /Apps/Drafts/Settings folder. Select from the list, and confirm the restore. The restore process is quick, and will replace all current actions with those in the backup.